The New Jerusalem; part 2

The New Jerusalem

Part 2

By Richard P. Joseph

So, what is the New Jerusalem?  Let’s back up and take a look at Revelation 21:1;

21 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.

Now let’s look at the next verse;

2 Then I, John,[a] saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

My question is this; are these two things the same?  They are certainly related but they may have their own place.  Is it possible that the first verse alludes to the new world order that occurred at the consummation and the second verse is the heavenly realm?  The first verse appears to indicate that the Old Covenant has come to a close and the New Covenant has begun.  Related to that is that the old temple system is obsolete but the new temple system is now in effect but remains in the unseen realm.  I also believe that there was a cosmological shift that now allows Christians to access the throne of God in a more direct and functional manner than what occurred with the old temple cultus.  The new temple, which is built on the foundation of the apostles but maintains a continuum with the old testament scriptures shows us that God is indefinite but is now more accessible to the entire world than it once was under the old “heavens & earth”.  This brings me to the functionality of the Christian way.  I believe fruitfulness and functionality are some of the main attributes of Christianity.  One way you can inspect fruit is by how functional or productive something is.  Everything Jesus touches is fruitful and bountiful.  He gives life to dead things.  He gives life to dead marriages, he gives life to lost souls, he produces vibrant societies, he gives life where there was only death.  This is why preterists should be among the most vibrant people on the planet.  We are not waiting for the earth to be burned up and destroyed while we tuck our tails between our legs and sit idle while the homosexuals and the Muslims rule the earth.  It should be quite the opposite.  Christians should walk in victory over all other entities on this planet.  We should be the ones ruling with justice, love and honesty.  It is our duty to be victorious, not to be cowards just sitting back and watching our society go to pot.  We have the power to do it but all I hear are pastors telling their flocks to sit and wait for the big Jesus to come in the sky and destroy the earth.  Jesus already did his part, he is now waiting for us to do ours.  That is what “faith” is really about.  He is with us and wants to lead us to victory but nobody is listening.  Faith requires action on “our” part.  We are living in the new heaven and earth but we act like we are sitting in a jail cell waiting for someone to rescue us.  Folks, we have been rescued by the blood of the lamb, now get up and get busy!  

So, I believe the new heaven and new earth are what replaced the old system.  Look at 2 Peter 3:5-7;   5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

Peter says that the old world perished by water.  So how come there is still life on the earth if it was wiped out?  The reason there is still life on earth is because, even though much life was lost, the real goal was to wipe out corruption, not the earth.  The “world system” of evil was wiped out, not the earth necessarily.  So when Peter talks about his current earth being burned up, he is not talking about the earth but rather the “evil world arrangement”.  This is the corruption that the Jews turned the old law into.  This old system was vanquished to make room for the everlasting kingdom of Christ.  Paul goes to great lengths to explain this point of the old system coming to an end in order to make room for the new covenant.  I would quote him but all you need to do is read any of his letters and you will be inundated with the message of the new heavens and earth.  

So, if that is the new heavens and earth, what is the New Jerusalem?  

The old Jerusalem was a physical place that was the epicenter of Judaism.  It was the one place on earth where the true God was supposed to be represented.  YHWH was to be defined by only one group of people so as to prove his path to the Messiah.  If anyone on the earth could just come up with some religion then nothing would be defined at all therefore God had to make a covenant with a person (Abraham) and a people (the Jews) in order to demonstrate his majesty to the world. That prevents any other person (such as Muhammad, Hare Krishna, Buddha etc) from ever making any claim to the true God.  The old Jerusalem was proof that man absolutely could not be obedient to God.  The New Jerusalem is the place where God himself has rescued us from ourselves.  It is a real place although imagery is all we can understand.  I believe the New Jerusalem is a description of the church on earth and our cosmological interaction with the heavenly realm.  We believers are the true bride so the description of the New Jerusalem is of the true believers.  The one passage that has always stumped me was Revelation 21:1b where is says “and there was no more sea”.  There are probably as many explanations of this as there are commentaries.  Here is one from Matthew Henry’s Commentary;   There will be no sea; this aptly represents freedom from conflicting passions, temptations, troubles, changes, and alarms; from whatever can divide or interrupt the communion of saints.   

I am not sure I even go along with that except to say that the part about dividing might have some truth to it.   A sea usually divides one piece of land from another, sometimes by great distances and has much obstacles that need to be overcome to cross it.  That is why I am going to suggest that the “sea” may be the gulf between man and God.  I am convinced that this chasm has been bridged by Jesus Christ and we can now access the spiritual kingdom of God from the earth after AD 70.  That is why I say there was a cosmological shift that occurred at the consummation of the age.  That is why the New Jerusalem really does remain in the unseen realm but we should be interacting with it even now as it is operational on earth as it is in heaven.  I cannot possibly give all of my thoughts in this short blog piece but I hope these small ideas will lead us to a better understanding of how the bride is now interacting with the king and how the bride will be with the groom for eternity as well.

The New Jerusalem; part one

The new Jerusalem

Part one.

By Richard P. Joseph

Many times when I present the idea of fulfilled theology to someone they bring up the question about the New Jerusalem.  One person even brought up that the very dimensions of it were given as if it were a brick and mortar structure.  I suppose you could take a lifetime researching this subject and still never quite understand it.  I would like to present some of my thoughts but I admittedly have more questions than answers.  The best I can do is present what I know at this point in my journey and hope I get some good feedback.  I am going to split this article up into more than one part in order to take my time on it.  There are a couple of perspectives that I would like to discuss and compare.  I would like to keep in mind a few parameters such as; what was it, when was it, who was it for and where is it?  

The first perspective can be found in an online article that was actually taken from a book; http://www.ukapologetics.net/newjerus.htm .

It is an excellent article and I encourage you to read it.  The second perspective was gathered from some of Ed Stevens works although I couldn’t find an exhaustive work dedicated only to The New Jerusalem.  The main scripture that we are focused on is Revelation 21:2 which reads:

2 Then I, John,[a] saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

John was allowed to see the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven and it was apparelled like a bride for her husband on their wedding day.   

So, what was it?  It was a bride.  The husband was Jesus Christ.  In the article above by H. C. Heffren, he makes this quote; “Christ is not married to a city, but His bride is the church composed of the redeemed of all ages”.   

On the other hand Ed Stevens made this comment to me:

“The book of Revelation says that there is no temple in the New Jerusalem because the Father and the Lamb are its temple. The New Jerusalem is in the unseen spiritual realm. It is not just figurative language about the church or kingdom on earth. It is a real place in the unseen realm to which we go after death. Jesus prepared dwelling places there in that city for His disciples (John 14:1-3). When he returned, he received them into those new dwelling places”.

I am convinced that both statements above contain truth but they do not match exactly.  There is one thing that I would like to clear up first.  For those that think it is an actual city that is placed on the earth here is your answer.  Please see the picture below.

If it were an actual city it would be so big it would make the earth wobble off of its axis.  In fact the curvature of the earth would need to be considered in order for it to not teter. One must apply some common sense when you read the bible.  The New Jerusalem is not a physical building on the earth.  So we are really left with two choices basically.  It has the attributes of a kingdom on earth where true believers are citizens of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.  We would have a higher calling than the heathen and be able to access and be refreshed by the truth whereas the worldly people can never access this city.  They would be reprobates upon the earth.  This is not hard to believe especially watching the politicians in our current election.  There are some that are plain evil and simply cannot invoke truth for love nor money.  This is not our eternal state but rather the eternal state of the earth.  Once we leave this earth, our souls will then enter the eternal heavenly kingdom where Jesus has prepared places for us.  I believe there is a symbolic side to the New Jerusalem but this does not interfere with an actual heavenly kingdom in which we will truly experience in a physical type of way.   

Ed Stevens is one of the best teachers about cosmology I have seen. Cosmology is the study of how the unseen realm interacts with the seen realm.  Both are actual entities and both were created by God.  The New Jerusalem is a beautiful lesson in cosmology even though I do not understand it very well.

At this point, however, I cannot say with certainty whether the New Jerusalem is the replacement for the Old Jerusalem or whether it is, like Stevens says, the place in the unseen realm where we will go once we leave the earth.  There are arguments that make both plausible.  The one thing I can say for sure is that it is not a giant, brick and mortar city on the earth.    So in other words there is symbolism to it but it may also be a reflection of the physicalness of a heavenly kingdom as well.  We will discuss more of this in the upcoming articles on this same subject.  

Should Christians obey their government?

Should Christians obey their government?

By Richard P. Joseph

If I ask any dedicated Christian if we should obey our government they will immediately take me to Romans Chapter 13 where Paul starts out with:

13 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.

Paul certainly followed the laws of the land and was a good example of a model citizen once he became a Christian.  I agree that we should follow the law which leads me to my next question; What is your current governmental structure?

Back in biblical times and, in fact, during most of the history of the earth the government rested on the shoulders of a king.  There are very rare instances where the power was spread to a senate of sorts where the people actually had a voice.  Rome experimented with the senate for a short while but the greed of kings still won the day.  One of the most important documents was the Magna Carta in 1215 which gave English citizens a voice in their government.  Other than that it was Rex Lex (the king is the law) for the most part.  The founders of the United States were unique and blessed as they reversed that trend into Lex Rex (the LAW is the king).  

I believe our constitution was a miracle of sorts as it released the earth from oppression and gave each individual value.  Every man now had incentive to create and invent and be rewarded for it.  This caused the earth to make advancements unparalleled since creation.  Only in a Christianized nation is this possible.  I cannot even start to mention the technological advances but more important was the value put on human beings.  It was the western world that ultimately put an end to slavery even though the Democrats in America are doing everything they can to keep it going via the welfare system, education system and ghetto creation.  We now have inner city plantations created by the Democratic party which shows us that evil is alive and well on planet earth.  But my real point in this article is to define “what government do we obey”?   

I am suggesting that we obey our current and legal form of government which is the constitution, not some crooked politician.   Most people in America have been fooled into obeying illegal actions by our politicians instead of obeying our real law, the constitution.  I am not going to make a list right now but understand that we as Christians are duty bound to follow the law and reject what is not the law.  If the government is not authorized by the constitution to create certain “laws” or if a judge attempts to create laws from the bench, then we have a duty to disobey simply by the fact that it is an illegal action.  I will let you fill in all of the blanks.  Most Christians have been hoodwinked into believing that if a politician speaks then we should jump.  As for me, I only jump when it is authorized by our law.

Ark of the Covenant after AD 70

Ark of the Covenant after AD 70

By Richard P. Joseph

In order to fully appreciate this article I would like to refer you back to a previous article I wrote called “End of the Law”.  In that article I explained how Jesus became the fulfillment of the Old Testament law.  This article is similar in that I would like to discuss how the Ark of the Covenant was transferred into the New Covenant of Jesus Christ.  

Commenting on the Ark is usually reserved for the better educated than I but I am hoping only to make a brief observation.  Sometimes, however, it is these small thoughts that can lead to more profound conclusions in the future and that is my intent.

As we all know, God instructed Moses to construct an Ark that would be the center of the Israelite worship.  God himself would make his presence known to them between the wings of the Cherubim.

10 “And they shall make an ark of acacia wood; two and a half cubits shall be its length, a cubit and a half its width, and a cubit and a half its height.  (Exodus 25:10).

22 And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel. (Exodus 25:22).

The Israelites were only to move the Ark using the poles that were placed through the rings on the Ark.  They were not to touch the ark.  Besides that, only Levites were to serve in this capacity.  

It is hard to nail down the last time the ark was utilized in Israel but I have a feeling it was right before the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. In 2 Chronicles 35:3 we see King Josiah ordering it back into the temple.  After that we hear Jeremiah mentioning it as if it were still in use (Jeremiah 3:16). In 2 Maccabees 2:5 it is noted that Jeremiah put the Ark in a cave and sealed it up.  What ever became of it is still a mystery to the general public.  It may be hid away and it might someday re-appear.  I do not believe that they would have left it exposed for the Babylonians to carry away.  Besides that, the ark had the power to protect itself because God made his presence known on the mercy seat (1 Chronicles 16:6).   

There are many places recorded in scripture where the ark actually protected itself by the hand of God.  One interesting event was recorded in 1 Samuel where the  Philistines took the ark after winning a fierce battle.  The Philistines set the ark before their idol god Dagon as proof that Dagon saved them in battle.  The next morning they found that their statue had fallen face first before the ark.  They set it back up only to find it had fallen again the next day with the head and hands broken off.  But YHWH was not done yet.  He sent a plague upon them so grievous that they decided to return the ark to Israel.  As a microbiologist I have concluded that this was the black plague.  I have determined it by the gifts that the Philistines placed in the ark as a sin offering in order to appease the God of Israel so that he would release them from the terrible death toll.  

Once the ark was returned some of the Israelites looked into it and they also perished.  The death toll was in the thousands.  The people finally lamented and sent it to another city for safe keeping.

20 And the men of Beth Shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?

Another time the ark took on an austere position is when David had it moved into his city.  

9 And when they came to Chidon’s[b] threshing floor, Uzza put out his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled. 10 Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzza, and He struck him because he put his hand to the ark; and he died there before God. 11 And David became angry because of the Lord’s outbreak against Uzza; therefore that place is called Perez Uzza[c] to this day. 12 David was afraid of God that day, saying, “How can I bring the ark of God to me?”

One of the ark bearers attempted to hold the ark up after it started to tip because the oxen slipped but he was struck dead on the spot.  David became so afraid of the ark that day that he put it in someone else’s care.

There are some eerie similarities between the ark of the Old Testament and certain events that occurred in the New Testament.  As preterists are aware of, is the fact that the Old Testament contains shadows of the New Testament fulfilments.  Just as Jesus became the fulfilment of the old law, the ark can also be seen in a fulfilled role also.  In the Old Covenant, the power of the ark was in the ark but the fulfilled power was in the church and in Christ.  One place this is evident is in the book of Acts.

In Acts chapter 5 we read the story of Ananias and Sapphira.  Since the end times would be approaching in their generation, land was no longer valuable as an inheritance to their children.  Therefore they sold the land and brought it to the apostles for distribution to the church.  Ananias and his wife Sapphira were not totally sold on the the idea and wanted to play both sides of the fence.  They sold a piece of land but withheld some of the money.  They acted as if they were fully in but in reality they were holding back.  When they went in to offer their money to the church and lied to Peter, they both dropped dead on the scene.  It is almost like they were touching the ark and were not authorized to do so.  Their heart was not right.  This leads me to think that the power of God that rested with the ark was transferred to the church and more specifically to Christ himself.  Just like only certain people were allowed to handle the ark, there are only certain people allowed to handle the Holy Spirit.  Here is an obscure scripture from Acts chapter 5.

13 Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly.

The disciples and Christians met often in Solomon's porch but others were afraid to approach them.  After hearing about the two that died, there was a fear that came upon the populace.  The power that was once displayed by the ark of the covenant was now transferred to the apostles.  They used this power to establish the church and to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Finally at the end we see the ark once more.  In Revelation 11:19 we read;

19 Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant[h] was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.

This is an amazing vision of the ark being taken out of man’s temple and placed into the spiritual temple of God.  This is consistent with the old law being transferred into Jesus Christ.  It clearly points to an end of the old and an ushering in of the new.  The final consummation of the law.  The shekinah glory that once lead the Israelites into the promised land was transferred to the apostles.  The glory is still there for the Christians to be lead by.  I observe God’s glory and truth everyday.  It guides everything I do.  It gives me my worldview and convicts me of my selfish ways.  It will finally bring me into God’s heavenly kingdom once I am finished on earth.  The ark is not gone, it is just moved.

As you can see I have not delved into the other symbolisms of the ark but kept it simple.  We all realize you can read and write volumes about how Jesus performed the duties of the High Priest on our behalf which was pictured in the ark itself.  My only goal was to help people understand that all of the shadows of the law are not necessarily dead but have been transferred into a highly useful form by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Fulfilled Magazine

Here is a great reading resource.  Fulfilled Magazine comes out a few times per year and has great articles in it from various preterist authors.  It doesn’t mean that I agree with all of them but you can stay connected to the movement through this subscription.  Best of all it is free; sort of.  They will send it free but they are always in need of donations.   You can contact them at:

fcg.brian@gmail.com

What is a Nation?

What is a “nation”?

By Richard P. Joseph

When one sets out to study history, especially ancient history, it is necessary to put yourself into the mindset of the culture and customs in which you intend to understand.  All too often modern bible students and church parishioners attempt to decipher scripture as if it were written last week, in America and using modern concepts.  I am not going to give any long lesson on biblical hermeneutics in this article for two reasons; one, I am not a scholar and two, it would take an entire book to do it in.  However, there is a simple formula that is necessary if you are going to make any arguments for or against scripture.  

Some of the questions one must ask when reading scripture is; “Who was it written to”?  “When was it written?”  “Why was it written”?  “What was it written for”?   Ed Stevens, in his book Final Decade on page 15,  puts it this way:

In order to gain a deep understanding of the first century, we need to experience it like an eyewitness.  We need to know not only what happened and when, but where it happened and why, and how it is related to the overall plan of redemption.

I am going to use this type of thinking as we take a look at one of the major misconception of end times events and that is “what is a nation”?  It might seem like I am making a mountain out of a molehill but it should all make sense and hopefully make you think next time you hear talk about the end times.  The scripture that I am going to look at today is Matthew 24:7 which reads:

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom…

As a new Christian, when I heard this passage, I always imagined that a nation was something like The United States or the Soviet Union, or China.  Of course any books I read during that time concerning End Times events viewed it that way also.  They talked about a United Europe and Russia and how they were going to attack Israel etc etc.  In fact that is still the common thought today except for those in the preterist movement.  In the preterist movement we attempt to answer those questions previously mentioned before we make our conclusion about scripture interpretation. So let’s take a look at another scripture in the second chapter of Acts that will help us with this one.

5 And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. 7 Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”

If one looked at a map of those nations mentioned above, especially as it was in those days, the square mileage probably wouldn’t add up to the size of Michigan.  Another thought would be to think about the Native American Indians as it concerned those in the 17th century.  Each tribe considered themselves a separate nation.  Just like first century Palestine, the Indians would say that their tribe was their nation.  We hear things like the Huron Nation, the Iroquois Nation, the Choctaw Nation, etc.  Those places might be five miles apart from each other and consist of a tribe, or in Palestine, a City State.  So getting back to what Jesus meant when he said “nation will rise against nation”, he (and his listeners) were not envisioning “half the globe”; they were envisioning a city state maybe 5 or 10 miles away.  Of course some were further but none took up half the globe.  Rome was a large city and the Roman army occupied much of the known world but each place retained its identity.  Occupation in those days was basically just one big tax collecting operation.  If they paid their taxes and didn’t cause any trouble, they were otherwise left alone.  So why am I making a big deal about this?  In order to interpret history correctly, that’s why.

Once the end was near and the second coming of Christ was about to happen, there was a massive civil war in Israel.  Zealot factions began to organize and fight amongst each other.  There were small bands of raiders and armies running around Israel pillaging food and weapons to fight against each other and against Rome if necessary.  Once Rome became involved it became even more obvious that the warning that Jesus gave about  “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near” was serious.  There were wars and rumors of wars at this time in all of the surrounding “nations”.   Jesus was not talking about the United States, Russia, and Europe invading Jerusalem, he was talking about his generation.  Once you read the actual events from those that were there you would have a better understanding of what Jesus meant.  Nation did rise up against nation (Jews against each other and against Rome and also Jews against Greeks, Syrians, etc) , and Kingdom against kingdom (God against the devil).  Reading the writings of Josephus and others will give you a glimpse into a world that you probably didn’t even know existed.  

As I sat in a pew for many years, I was never taught about the intricate events that happened during the book of acts and shortly after.  Once I began studying this, it opened my eyes up to what type of world the scripture was actually written in and talking about.  If you want to read the bible in a whole new light then I invite you to study the historical context that is was written under.  The bible will go from an obscure book of small quotes from the pulpit to a marvelous story with unending adventures.  You will finally understand the duress and immanency that Paul and Peter wrote under.  You will understand the political arena that the struggle happened in.  It will make the end times come alive instead of some obscure future event that is never mentioned in the bible.  You will finally understand what the “End Times” were.